ChiTownScion
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,247
- Location
- The Great Pacific Northwest
My parents began early on stating that I would go to college. However, they also strongly mistrust college educated people. They are very critical about how college graduates do not do "honest" work, do not work hard, or work a full week. Since I work in education, I've seen this happen (to a lesser extent) to several first-generation college students who's parents both value on the surface but also deeply mistrust college educations.
Even after I had graduated law school and passed my bar, my dad was haranguing me to take the fire department exam because it would provide a "secure income." Of course, he still loved trotting me out to his more white collar friends and neighbors as, "my son, the attorney."
The thing that galls me still is that he really wanted me to become an engineer and harassed me about it for years- in spite of the fact that my math and hard science skills are pretty mediocre. He came home from World War II and could have pursued any educational option that he wanted: he had good high school grades, he was bright, and he had the GI Bill at his disposal. Instead, he just wanted to get married and take any job that he could. I would have preferred that he just fulfill his own dreams and not impose them vicariously on me.